Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1797
“But He answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped Him, saying, Lord, help me.” Matthew 15:24,25.
You that know the loving heart of our Lord Jesus are quite sure that He would never needlessly discourage a soul in coming to Him. Yet in this case, “He answered her not a word.” Is Jesus dumb when misery entreats a word from Him? The Friend of Man is usually all attraction, encouragement, drawing and welcoming—yet the eager woman cries in vain to Him for her tormented daughter! We are not disquieted about this. We know our Lord too well to suspect Him of a lack of love. He is not sporting with a wounded bird. He is in no fit of bitterness. He would not even seem to discourage any heart that beat within a human bosom unless there had been some great necessity for it, some gracious end to be served.
Nobody will have the impudence to accuse our Divine Lord of undue harshness to a soul that sought His help. The world might suspect some of His ministers of being hard and cold, like yon pulpits of marble which have, in these chill times, been exalted among the people. They might think some of us more touchy than tender, for are not some of us great stone creatures almost without feeling and not easily to be approached? People may suspect that we are scant in affection, or that we lack earnestness—they may even hint that we are too great sticklers for orthodoxy, or that we are so distrustful of our fellow men that we naturally love to try them with things harsh and forbidding in order to keep them a good mile off at the least! I know they think us sorry fathers, more ready with the rod than with our cheering sympathies— and for this they have far too much justification. I would it were not so.
You may suppose hard things of us, who are His servants. The supposition may be true. It may be slanderous—but you cannot suppose anything of the kind concerning the Lord Jesus Christ—He is so evidently loving, gracious and cordial that you could not have the heart to suspect Him! If Jesus has ever received you, you have had, in that fact, unquestionable proof of His tenderness and you are, and will be, henceforth, confident in His compassion. You are sure that the “bruised reed He will not break, and the smoking flax He will not quench,” for He neither broke nor quenched you. Yet He did discourage this woman. Not only the disciples did so, but the Master did so, too. Therefore, I say that there must have been a secret need for so doing—there must have been a motive for her good which moved the tender Lord to answer her with words so harshly—and with speech so dispiriting.
I believe that we, dear Friends, the humble imitators of the Lord Jesus Christ, are bound to encourage all in whom there is any hope. Whenever we see a wandering soul turning its face homewards, we should be ready to lend a hand to direct its tottering footsteps. Still, if we imitate our Lord, we may be led to say sore things which, like the faithful wounds of a friend, are as sharp as they are salutary. Love’s lips do not always drop honey! Flattery charms with her dulcet periods, but a wise affection full often uses tones most harsh and cutting. There is a tendency among certain goody-goody people to comfort too much and to keep back important Truths of God for fear they should be misunderstood. Glorious doctrines which made our fathers strong are left in the shade for fear they should become stumbling blocks to unsettled minds! We are coming to be rather overdone with the Gospel prepared for infant’—they are putting the flour through so many sieves that there will not be an ounce of bone-making material left in it!
If it were always wise to comfort and encourage, the Master would have kept to that line of things. But, since He did not do so, I assume—and I think that none will dare to contradict me—that men require something else beside encouragement. Do we not read that “all Scripture is given by Inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works”? There are Truths which ought not to be kept back because they may not encourage, for their use is to reprove and correct. There are Truths which, at certain seasons, ought to be told, even though the temporary effect may be to dampen the ardor or to dull the hope of the sinner who is coming to Christ. Like our Master, we must always long after the salvation of sinners and, like He, we must go about it wisely. We must exhibit great fatherly tenderness toward sinners and be very gentle, even as a shepherd is with the lambs—but that very love, that very tenderness will lead the well-instructed teacher to utter many things which the disciple had rather not hear!
Our shepherdry deals not only with the green pastures, but also with the place of the sheep-washing and the shearing. We have not only to console, but to correct—ours is the edification which deals frequently with pulling down dilapidated bits of wall in order to the security of the whole fabric—and, therefore, we occasionally seem to be destroyers where we are really builders, together with God! Our Lord knew that plain speech upon a certain Truth would weed out His disciples. Did He, therefore, preserve a discreet silence? Not He! In due time He delivered His soul and we read, “from that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him.”